Anyway, back to the DVD, as I mentioned the documentary goes through each album in turn, taking out key songs and key events. Each section / album lasts about 12-14 mins which is just enough without getting into too much detail. There are also some events which are explained in more detail that I ever knew - in particular their first appearance on Top of the Pops, the extra historical details are quite interesting gave me an 'I didn't know that' moment. The review panel includes Malcolm Dome, Simon Bradley (mentioned earlier), Nigel Williamson, Chris Welch, and my favourite Paul Gambaccini (broadcaster, journalist and long time friend of Freddie Mercury). I find Paul Gambaccini gives a behind the scenes view of Queen, as well as being well able to draw you in with his memories, stories from the early-Queen days, and reasons why he thought some of Queens songs were so successful. Simon Bradley continues to break down the Brian May riffs of Killer Queen, Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, and Crazy Little Thing Called Love ... more for the guitarists out there to watch. One of the questions I have been asked over the past few days (as I was reviewing the DVD), was how much band member footage is there. Well, theres some very good concert footage, Top of the Pops items and other concert snippets but apart from three or four clips of Freddie discussing Queen (filmed in Sydney, Australia in the 80's) there is not much in the way of Queen member footage - but to be quite honest theres plenty of music
and other footage to keep you happy. My thoughts on the DVD are that its an excellently researched DVD, with interesting panelists, the addition of the (guitarist is a masterstroke), the concert clips and sound bites are different from other rockmentaries I have seen - on the other hand I would disagree with some of the verdicts on the albums and some extra archive / band member footage would have been nice and would have made an excellent DVD even better. It will be interesting to see if the Queen Under Review series will continue to do a (1980-1991) follow-up DVD which would cover items
such as the often criticised Hot Space album, the success of the Magic Tour and the death of Freddie Mercury.
My recommendation is that this is a DVD that is worth buying, especially if you are into music and interested in critical reviews of Queens music. Extra features on the DVD include a Queen Discography of albums, singles, bootlegs and other Queen music and DVD output. Also there is a Queen Quiz which is a bit tricky I have to admit. Queen Under Review (1973-1980) : Running Time 103 mins approx.
Available from chromedreams.co.uk and Music/DVD outlets.
Chrome Dreams have 3 other Queen
titles,
Maximum Freddie Mercury, Maximum Queen and Queen Magic Moments.
Review by Shane McDonald - December 4th 2005
If you wish to reproduce this review please contact the webmaster at shanemcdonald.org first
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